Bar Talk: A Conversation About Death & Co (New York, NY)

"So, I went this really great little cocktail bar in the East Village last week called Death & Co."

"Good grief, another one of those so-called 'speakeasies' serving cocktails with 150-year-old recipes so strong you pass out after the second round?"

"Hey now, this place was the real deal. And it's not a speakeasy. It's not hidden, and there's a bouncer out front."

"You don't need to get a password from an old phone booth in some dark corner of the Lower East Side?"

"No, nothing like that, although you'll probably have to put your name down and wait for a table or spot at the bar. It's a small place, holding a maximum of about 30 people, and they don't let you stand around."

"I have to give my name?"

"Yeah, but it's not that bad. My husband and I went around 8:30 on a Saturday night and had to wait about half an hour. We wandered around the neighborhood a bit and checked out a nearby used records store."

"You don't have to stand around outside waiting in the cold?"

"No, you can leave. The guy at the door takes your cell phone number and calls you when a spot opens. I suppose if they were really slammed you might even have time to get a drink first someplace else; there are plenty of other bars and restaurants nearby."

"Huh, that's not too bad. But what's it like inside? I'm really over dive bars serving overpriced cocktails."

"It's not a dive, it's really rather nice inside: dark interior with wood paneling on the ceiling and, as you'd expect, the polished stone bar is the centerpiece of the long, narrow main room. Seating is divided between the bar and a few tables for two to four people. It strikes a nice balance of being both contemporary and classic, just like their drinks."

"Ah yes, the important part. I tell you, I'm really over all this obsession with drinks from 1890. Why can't we drink like it's 2015?"

"At Death & Co, you can definitely drink like it's 2015. The bar menu is incredible: seven of its eight pages focus on original creations, all of which are $15 except the punches. Drinks are divided by spirit: gin, rum, agaves like tequila and mezcal, whiskey, brandy and two pages of specials, with each page then subdivided between shaken and stirred drinks. A final page is for classics, but they aren't your typical old-school drinks. For example, there's the Cameron's Kick from the 1930s classic The Savoy Cocktail Book made with Scotch and Irish whisky, lemon, orgeat and Angostura bitters."

Death & Co also published a book last year, which I reviewed.

"That sounds pretty promising. What were your drinks like?"

"We liked everything we tried. Because we'd just eaten Mexican, we were in the mood for more tequila and sampled three drinks from the agave page. I started with the Sierra Madre, a drink that nicely displays the complexity of the cocktails they make. Its base is mezcal infused with coconut and green tea and mixed with lime juice, pear brandy, vanilla syrup and ginger syrup, making for a refreshing tart and sweet drink. That's a lot of flavor components, but they melded nicely. I liked how I could still discern the subtle hint of vanilla amid all the other flavors. Chris's first drink was the Fever Dream, which was mezcal infused with chiles and mixed with suze, elderflower liqueur, lime, simple syrup, cucumber and celery bitters. His drink was just spicy enough without being overbearing and nicely balanced."

"Those both sound really good. Did you get a second round?"

"Of course! My second drink was the Kinsale Cooler, a refreshing blend of gin, Manzanilla sherry, suze, elderflower liqueur, lemon juice, celery bitters and seltzer. Although this drink shares several key ingredients with the Fever Dream, it was completely different--a bit bitter with the sherry really coming through. Chris stayed on the agave page and had the Age & Treachery, a wonderfully brown and caramelly mix of tequila, mezcal, amaro, apple syrup, Angostura bitters and sarsparilla tincture."

"It's amazing how many ingredients are in each of those drinks. It must take the bartenders ages to make them. I suppose they have to look each one up in some recipe book."

"Remarkably, no. Our bartender made each of these drinks from memory. I was so impressed and told him so, which elicited a big smile."

"No doubt through his waxed handlebar mustache."

"No, he didn't have that hipster-bartender look. He seemed like a pretty normal guy."

"And he provided good service too?"

"Definitely. We were given waters the minute was sat down and didn't have to wait very long for our drinks to be made. They kept the water refills coming and our second round came shortly on the heels of our first. It was a much better service experience than when we went to that other big-name cocktail bar in Soho."

"Ugh, that place."

"Death & Co. was really a fantastic bar experience in every way. Excellent, creative cocktails in a cool atmosphere with friendly, efficient service. I would definitely go back."

"And I'll be coming with you."

"Cheers."

Death & Co, 433 East 6th Street (between 1st Avenue and Avenue A), New York, NY (Manhattan, East Village). (212) 388-0882. No reservations.


Related

Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails (review of the Death & Co book with recipe excerpts)

Changing the Sausage Recipe

Next week my blog will celebrate another anniversary, and with 3 years behind me, I've decided to change my approach a bit.

Up to now, I've been posting almost every weekday, generally grouping recipes around a theme for the week. Interspersed among the recipe posts have been restaurant reviews and a weekly look at others' food writing that started as Food (Section) Fight and morphed into The Feed.

For a long time, I really liked this pace. I considered my blog more of a cooking journal where I could share with you what I'm making, including what works, what doesn't, what's new, what's an old favorite, etc. I've had a lot of fun learning new recipes and coming up with a few on my own. For expanding my cooking repertoire, this approach has served me well.

Now with a decent collection of recipes under my belt, I've decided to shake up that approach. I want to put more focus on each post with a greater emphasis on creative cooking and more thoughtful writing. I want to take more time to think about what makes a certain dish or restaurant interesting and special. There have been some weeks where I feel like I really have to crank out the stories to get them up in time. I look back and I see mistakes and missed opportunities and I don't like that.

So that's how the sausage has been made at Cook In / Dine Out, and I'm ready to try a new recipe. My plan is to take more time with each post. I still anticipate posting frequently--definitely every week and probably multiple times per week, but not every day. That will give me more time to make each post special and (hopefully) less error-ridden.

Also, I am discontinuing The Feed. Although I like that it forces me to keep up with current food news, I don't like that it means I'm always scrambling on Tuesday nights to get the post done. I still plan to keep reading from my favorite food news sources (like the Washington Post Food section), but I won't be sharing them on my blog as much (follow me on Twitter and Facebook, if you don't already, as I plan to do more sharing of interesting stories there).

I also hope to interact more with readers. If you read one of my stories, I hope you will leave a comment. Let me know what you like and what you don't. If you have a question, I'll do my best to answer it as soon as possible. Getting to know other food and cooking fanatics has been one of the best outcomes of having this site. I hope to do more of that this year.

So to turn this post's metaphor into something literal, I'm now actually going to talk about changing sausage.

I made pizza for us on New Year's Eve this week. At the Giant grocery store, I found breakfast sausage, hot sausage and sage sausage, but I couldn't find any Italian sausage--the type with fennel seed and spice that you usually find on pizza. Given that making sausage "Italian" seems mostly to be a matter of spices, I decided to try a quick conversion.

Although there are recipes out there for making Italian sausage from scratch, there are also quite a few that do what I did: mix a few seasonings into pre-ground bulk sausage. I recommend starting with something basic: I used Jimmy Dean regular sausage as my base. From there, I added fennel seed, red chili pepper flakes, garlic, parsley and oregano. This "doctored" sausage was exactly what I wanted for my pizza with homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmigiano-reggiano, caramelized onion and fresh basil. The recipe below is enough for two personal-sized pizzas. Feel free to scale up as needed.

Quick Italian Sausage
Adapted from multiple recipes

1/2 lb. bulk regular sausage
1 tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
Pinch of red chili pepper flakes (or more for hot sausage)

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together thoroughly with a spoon or your hands (your hands work better).

2. For use on pizza, form into small balls, about 1/2-inch wide and cook in a medium frying pan over medium heat until browned on all sides.

Related

Pizza Margherita

Best of 2014: Restaurants

The D.C. restaurant scene continued its dynamism this year. Last year, I wrote about how 2013 was a landmark year for new restaurants; this year felt no different as D.C. welcomed places like DBGB, Fiola Mare, The Partisan and Rural Society. The slate of openings, however, was also accompanied by a number closures, most notably one the city's four-star restaurants, CityZen, and a beloved personal favorite, Palena.

This year we visited restaurants in D.C., New York, Portland, Dallas and Santa Fe, and found gems in all of them. Here are some of our very favorites.

Fried Green Tomatoes, Macon Bistro & Larder

Best Starter: Fried Green Tomatoes, Macon Bistro & Larder (D.C.). I'd never had fried green tomatoes before trying them at Macon Bistro and Larder, but I'd always wanted to try them. I quickly became a fan of Macon's thick slabs of green tomato fried to perfection and served with smoky chunks of meaty bacon and tomato aioli. Although Macon has plenty of interesting starters, this has become our must-have when we go there. Honorable mentions: Roasted Butternut Squash with Pumpkin Seeds, Le Verdure at Eataly (NYC); Pickled Beet Soup with Cherry Compote and Dried Corn Crumble, Mitsitam Cafe at The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (D.C.); Tableside Guacamole, Oyamel (D.C.).

Best Salad: Insalata di Mele con Gorgonzola, Coppi's Organic (D.C.). I love apples in salad, and this creation featured roasted spiced apples with pine nuts, gorgonzola cheese and bitter mesclun was a spot-on balance of flavors. Honorable mentions: Caesar Salad with Fried Oysters, Aggio (D.C.); Roasted Carrot and Kale Salad with Chestnuts, Pistachios and Buttermilk Dressing, Bread Feast at Bread Furst (D.C.); Grilled Bitter Greens with Pine Nuts, Currants and Aged Balsamic Vinegar, Le Verdure at Eataly; Black Kale, Apple and Warm Pancetta, Lupa Osteria Romana (NYC); Bibb Lettuce with Red-Wine-Poached Pears and Burrata, Thally (D.C.).

Best Pasta: Mafaldine with Pork Ragu, Lupa Osteria Romana. Lupa has been our favorite New York City restaurant for years. The Greenwich Village outpost in the Batali-Bastianich restaurant collective excels at making great pasta and this hearty pasta special we enjoyed early this year continues to uphold its tradition of quality. Honorable mentions: Chittara with Meatballs and Ragu Pomadoro, Aggio; Strip Steak Lasagna Béchamel, Coppi's Organic.

Salt Air pork chop

Best Entree: Grilled Sweet-Tea-Brined Pork Chop, Salt Air (Rehoboth Beach, Del.). We enjoyed a lot of good entrees, so it's hard to choose a favorite, but we were particularly taken with Salt Air's flavorful pork chop topped with charred scallion honey-butter and served with the wonderful accompaniments of smoky bacon beans, collards and corn bread. We've been going to Rehoboth Beach for years, but just visited Salt Air for the first time this year. It won't be our last. Honorable mentions: Shenandoah Valley Pork Shoulder with Potatoes, Mushrooms and Braised Red Cabbage, Bread Feast at Bread Furst; Grilled Chinook Salmon, Clyde Common (Portland, Ore.); Barbecued Brisket, Lockhart Smokehouse (Plano, Tex.); Fried Chicken with Waffles, Macon Bistro & Larder; Steak Fajitas, La Plazuela (Santa Fe, N.M.); Wine-Braised Beef Shortribs with Mushrooms and Parsnip Puree, Tía Pol (NYC).

Best Pizza: The Smoky, Comet Ping Pong (D.C.). We rediscovered Comet Ping Pong this year as a really great place to spend an hour or two on a Sunday afternoon for great pizza and beer. It's hard to pick a favorite pizza. I mentioned The Smoky, made from bacon, smoked mozzarella and smoked mushrooms, a pizza that teases your nose before your taste buds. But we also love the sausage and potato pie Time-Out, the sausage and pepper Stanley and the meatball and tomato Jimmy. Honorable mentions: Gorgonzola Pizza, Arcuri (D.C.); Everything but Anchovy Pizza, Nicola Pizza (Rehoboth Beach, Del.); Salciccia Dolce, Vezzo Thin Crust Pizza (NYC).

Bûche de Noël, Bread Feast at Bread Furst

Best Dessert: Bûche de Noël, Bread Feast at Bread Furst. I didn't write a post about Bread Feast--the pop-up from former Palena Chef Frank Ruta that set up weekly dinners this fall in my neighborhood bakery Bread Furst--because I didn't visit until its final night. This is good news though: Ruta has a new gig next year in Georgetown cooking at Capella. Since this post is about looking back, I'm happy to share that Bread Feast was fantastic and has me primed and ready for Ruta's next act. This dessert was one of the evening's standouts: gingerbread rolled with cream cheese frosting and served with cranberry ginger sauce. Absolutely divine. I'm not sure if Ruta, his sous chef Aggie Chin or the bakery was responsible for this--perhaps it was a collaboration, which might explain why it was so divine. Honorable mentions: Hazelnuts and Mascarpone in Chocolate with Coffee Orange Gelato, Aggio; Twix Mousse Pie, Ripple (D.C.). Honorable mentions: White Chocolate Ice Cream Pie, Clyde Common; Raspberry Tiramisu, Coppi's Organic; Blackberry Cobbler, Macon Bistro & Larder.

Best Cocktail: Smoked Sage Margarita, Secreto (Santa Fe, N.M). This cocktail has just about everything going for it that I like in a cocktail. First off, it's a margarita, a drink I can pretty much never turn down. Second it's full of smoky flavors, which I love, and third, it's got an herbal component, which I find so refreshing and fun in cocktails. That Santa Fe's Secreto is just an all-around great bar with friendly staff and other great drinks makes this easily our favorite cocktail experience this year, and we had a lot of really great ones. I even tried making this myself. Honorable mentions: The Chairman, Aggio; Cima Coppi, Coppi's Organic; Avocado Margarita, Meso Maya (Dallas); Amaretto Sour, Pepe le Moko (Portland, Ore.); Ms. Rosemary Bulleit, Thally.

Macon Bistro & Larder

Best Service: Macon Bistro & Larder. Macon is a busy place, but every time we visited we felt welcomed and cared for. The servers don't just bring food, they offer helpful suggestions, show enthusiasm for the food and, importantly, a desire to please. Honorable mentions: Aggio, La Plazuela, Salt Air, Thally.

Best Overall Experience: Macon Bistro & Larder. We have felt so fortunate to welcome this Southern-meets-French bistro to our neighborhood. I love its style and its food, which so far has always been excellent. It's become one of our new favorite hangouts, especially for celebratory occasions. Honorable mentions: Aggio, Bread Feast at Bread Furst, La Plazuela, Salt Air. 

Best of 2014: Theme Weeks

Regular readers of my blog have probably noticed that I often write with a weekly theme. I find it a good way to organize my thoughts and share a variety of posts on the same subject. Sometimes I'm more explicit about it that other weeks--I may announce the theme at the beginning of the week updated throughout the week as new stories are posted. Other weeks the theme is "looser," like a collection of recipes that may share a key ingredient or cuisine.

The themes I put the most effort into are the ones I'm most proud of. They may involve greater than usual research or experimentation. Below are the themes I consider highlights from this last year (click on the title to go to the week's main post or any of the other links for specific stories).

Under pressure

Pressure Cooker Week

A new generation of cooks are rediscovering pressure cookers as a versatile tool for achieving slow-cooked techniques in a fraction of the time. And a new generation of devices have addressed the safety concerns that made pressure cookers the stuff of our childhood nightmares. I discussed features of modern pressure cookers, particularly my model, a Fagor Duo 8-quart pressure cooker; shared recipes for Mole Chicken Chili, Chicken Paprikash, Quinoa Salad with Cauliflower and Barbecue Spareribs, a recipe that has proven to be one of my most popular; and in the introductory post, I shared additional pressure-cooker resources.

And the Oscar goes to...

Oscar Cocktails 2014

For the second year, I invented cocktails representing all of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture (plus a bonus cocktail for a film that wasn't nominated but resulted in this year's Best Actress award, Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine). Highlights included American Hustle, a "forgery" of a Pimm's Cup; Captain Phillips, an African-inpsired play on the Screwdriver; and The Wolf of Wall Street, a riff on the vodka martini that was the most popular of this year's Oscar drinks. Included with the week were a couple of Oscar party (1 and 2) snacks as well.

Favorite salad dressing? It's a toss up.

Spring Salad Week: Salad Dressings

Salads get lots of attention, salad dressings not so much. For my spring salad week, I put the focus on the vinaigrettes and creamy mixtures responsible for pulling together and complementing the various leafy, meaty, fruity and crunchy ingredients we toss into salads. In my introductory post, I offered tips for dressing salads, and during the week shared recipes for a lighter take on ranch dressing made with Greek yogurt, old-school French dressing, lemon-tahini dressing, a childhood favorite - blue cheese apple cider vinaigrette and that simple workhorse, basic vinaigrette, which I used to dress a pizza salad.

Please, don't be bitter.

Cocktail Bitters Week

Readers who like my cocktail coverage should definitely check out Cocktail Bitters Week if you missed it. This was one of my most substantial efforts this year, representing a significant amount of research into cocktail history and experimentation with various contemporary cocktail bitters to present a week of content that that explored bitters role in cocktail history as well as the modern craft cocktail renaissance. For the research, I leaned heavily on two great works: Brad Thomas Parsons' Bitters and David Wondrich's Imbibe!, both of which are discussed in my introductory post. Posts covered classic cocktails with classic bitters like the Manhattan with Angostura bitters and the Sazerac with Peychaud's bitters and classic cocktails with a modern twist like the Old Fashioned with Fee Brothers' Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters, the Fancy Gin Cocktail with Boker's Bitters (a modern rendering of an old fashioned recipe) and the Improved Tequila Cocktail with Bittermens' mole bitters. I explored quite a few modern bitters creations like a G&T Martini using Scrappy's lime bitters and a Smoky Paloma made with Bitter Tears' bacon-peppercorn bitters.

Where there's smoke, but not necessarily fire

Smoky Recipes Week

I love the smoky taste of grilled food, but as an urban apartment dweller, I unfortunately cannot enjoy true grilled taste at home. This smoky recipes week kicked off summer with the true grilled flavor of simple grilled salmon but also ways to use smoky flavors in recipes prepared indoors, like smoked cheese and paprika in a smoky tuna (noodle) casserole and broiled vegetable skewers.

Herb(an) garden

Growing an Herb Garden

This wasn't a true theme week, but a recurring theme throughout the late spring and summer as I tried my hand at growing an herb garden this year. Turns out I have a green thumb after all, as I cared for an enjoyed fresh basil, mint, thyme, rosemary, sage, tarragon and chervil. I provided updates on the garden at 6 weeks (including how I started the garden) and 12 weeks and shared recipes for dishes such as linguine with fresh herbs, first hints of summer salad, pasta with peas, bacon and parsley, bacon barley kale corn mushroom soup and chicken breasts with tarragon-lemon-garlic sauce.

I think tomatoes are just peachy.

Tomato Week(s)

Tomato week actually stretched into 2 weeks this year, which I don't apologize for, given that tomatoes are my favorite vegetable and are only in-season for a few months. I started and the weeks with Middle Eastern salads: Fattoush, tomato and pita salad, and Tabbouleh made with freekeh, a smoky wheat grain. Other recipes include penne with roasted sungold tomatoes, peach and tomato salad with tofu and a Greek salad refashioned as a soup. I also created a special mashup sandwich: the PBLT&J. The highlight of my tomato recipes this year though was the Tipsy Gazpacho Cocktail, a drink I created inspired by the classic cold Spanish soup that was selected as a finalist in the Washington Post Top Tomato recipe contest.

My computer has an unusual affinity for this photo.

Apple Week

Apples are a wonderfully versatile fruit that sometimes don't get enough credit. They make a great snack raw and taste great in salads, soups, desserts, cocktails and other dishes. For this theme week, I explored this versatility with an apple tasting and recipes for a smoky apple crostini, an apple-potato soup with apple chicken sausage, roasted stuffed caramel apples and two great apple cocktails (1 and 2).

Depending on who you ask, one or all of these things can refer to "bruschetta."

Food and Language Week

Language is a fascinating subject and food, given its ubiquitous and international status, has its own unique connection to language. Like the cocktail bitters week, this was another theme that required significant research, both academic and original. I tied the theme to the release of The Language of Food by Dan Jurafsky, which discussed and used as a source along with other research to discuss how fajitas, bruschetta and the martini are all food terms whose meanings have evolved in recent years.

Go Southwest, young man.

The American Southwest

Chris and I love Tex-Mex and other Southwestern cuisines and spent a fair amount of time eating it this year on trips to Texas, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. We wrote about great restaurants in Dallas and Santa Fe (and generally not so great ones around national parks). We had particular affinity for the barbecue at Lockhart Smokehouse in Plano, Texas. Our experiences inspired my cooking in a number of ways, including a Southwestern fall grain bowl, smoked sage margarita, a mole-brined roast turkey with mole gravy for Thanksgiving and a spicy turkey posole with Thanksgiving leftovers.

Best of 2014: 14 Original Recipes

Ramen Noodle Pork Tacos

The recipes on my blog are a mix of those I've adapted from other sources and originals that I've come up with on my own. They both serve an important purpose: the former allow me to learn from others and share things that I like and the latter allow me to be creative. As I pick up more techniques and expose myself to more ingredients, I find it easier to be creative. There's a foundation that I know will result in success for what I set out to achieve. At least that's the plan, and thankfully it seems to work most of the time.

I combed through my original recipes to find these 14 original recipes that I think were my most creative and interesting for the year.

Salmon Soba Noodle Soup. This year, especially during the first half of the year, I made an effort to try more Asian cooking, particularly Japanese, since it's been so hot lately (especially ramen). With this simple soup, I was attempting something new with dashi, the umami-rich Japanese broth made with bonita (dried smoked fish flakes) and kombu (dried seaweed). Since dashi, soba noodles and salmon all cook quickly, this is a wonderful soup for a winter weeknight.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. I count this as an "original" recipe, because I don't follow anyone's recipe for making this. It's something I've made for years based on how my mom did it when I was a kid. So chances are you've probably had spaghetti like this at some point. That said, I absolutely love this spaghetti. It's a favorite in our household.

Cauliflower, Asparagus and Mushroom Risotto. This wonderful spring vegetable risotto had the unlikeliest of beginnings: it was inspired by a Twitter typo and subsequent back-and-forth tweets between me, Washington Post Food editor Joe Yonan and my neighborhood farmers market, New Morning Farm. Just goes to show that you never know where you'll find inspiration for the next great dish.

Ultimate Club Sandwich. When it comes to a traditional sandwich, the club is king. It's also highly customizable. For this "ultimate" take, I thought about what ingredients would go into the ideal club: quality toasted bread, smoked turkey, roasted tomatoes, thick smoky bacon, spicy mayo, avocado and cheese. Hungry yet?

Mac & Cheese Fondue Bake. Ever since the cronut crossed a croissant and doughnut, food "mashups" have been all the rage. I attempted a few fun ones this year, including this mac & cheese casserole, which crosses the classic childhood comfort food with the flavors of grown-up Swiss cheese fondue.

Ramen Noodle Pork Tacos (pictured at top). This was my peak of my creative endeavors this year, a tongue-in-cheek recipe, that's actually quite tasty, mashing up the current fever for ramen with the fever for street tacos into one delicious dish.

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake. The components of this dish are not original--the cake and mousse recipes come from other sources (including my friend Jason's blog, The Aubergine Chef)--but I'm including it here because the idea to combine the two was mine, inspired by a birthday cake I made for myself over 25 years ago.

Chickpea "Potato" Salad. It's like the classic picnic potato salad but make with canned chickpeas, which significantly cuts down on prep time, and nonfat Greek yogurt, which cuts the calories over the mayonnaise-dressed version.

Bacon Barley Kale Corn Mushroom Soup. The name is a bit of a mouthful, but I could think of no better way to describe this easy soup that combines so many wonderful summer flavors.

Peas 3-Ways Risotto. I made a lot of risotto this year and I won't apologize for it. The Italian grain dish is the perfect vehicle for showcasing a multitude of fresh vegetables available in the spring and summer. This version is all about peas, incorporating sugar snap peas, shelled English peas and pea shoots.

Triple Smoky Apple & Blue Cheese Crostini. The combination of smoked blue cheese, smoked sea salt and chipotle chili powder make this lovely apple-based appetizer "triple smoky."

Moroccan-Spiced Meat Loaf. Northern African flavors were an inspiration for me this year and this meatloaf, which came out of a chat I had over Twitter one night with Cathy "Mrs. Wheelbarrow" Barrow, was my favorite expression of them.

Southwestern Fall Grain Bowl with Turkey, Squash, Pecans and Sage. All the best flavors of fall are wrapped into this hearty grain bowl with a Southwestern twist. It's another dish that ideal for a weeknight (or as lunch the next day).

Judith's Mole Cookies. I love mole sauce, the spicy Mexican sauce of nuts, chiles, raisins, chocolate and spices that comes in many combinations. This year, I started using the sauce for other purposes, like brining a Thanksgiving turkey breast. I also tried turning the ingredients into a cookie, which worked rather well. These cookies were a crossover with my husband's Dallas Decoder blog, representing the character Judith Ryland in our imaginary third annual Dallas Holiday Bakeoff.

Pot Roast with Vegetables

One of the best cooking lessons I've learned is that when you want to make a classic recipe for the first time, always consult America's Test Kitchen. Their collection of classic recipes coupled with their intensive testing and tweaking means that you're (almost) guaranteed to end up with a great result out of the gate.

I wasn't disappointed by their recipe for Pot Roast with Root Vegetables, which I turned to when I wanted to make pot roast for the first time.

Braising, where you cook a piece of meat for a long time in time, is ideal for making a tough cut of meat tender. Cook one of these cuts fast like a steak and you'd probably be disappointed with it. Cook it long and slow and you will end up with something delicious that's also generally more affordable than typically tender cuts. I used a top-blade roast, which is one of the recommended choices for this recipe.

Roasts need to be tied while they cook to prevent them from falling apart--they can do that when they're on your plate. Some may come already tied, but if they don't (or the tying job doesn't look very good), you can tie it yourself with some simple string. Here's a good video showing how it's done.

Then you start by browning the meat in a little oil, which adds flavor.

 You need two sets of vegetable for this dish: first, the aromatic vegetables that flavor the braising liquid and are discarded, and second, the root vegetables that are cooked and served with the meat.

My mother made pot roasts a lot for our family when I was a kid. But strangely, I'd never made it myself until now. We were pretty happy with it. I definitely recommend this version that also braises vegetables along with the meat. You have all that good flavor from the braising liquid, so why not extend it to make a great vegetable side. I served the roast and root vegetables with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts.

Pot Roast with Vegetables
Adapted from a recipe by America's Test Kitchen

3 to 3 1/2 lb. boneless beef roast, such as top-blade (what I used), chuck-eye or seven-bone
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery rib, diced
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup low-sodium beef broth
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups water (use more or less as needed in step 3 below)
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 lb. carrots (about 8 medium carrots), sliced 1/2 inch thick (about 3 cups)
1 lb. small red potatoes, halved if larger than 1 1/2 inches in diameter (about 5 cups)
1 lb. large parsnips (about 5), sliced 1/2 inch thick (about 2 cups)
1 lb. celery root, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 2 cups)

1. Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 300 F. Pat the roast dry with paper towels and, if not already done, tie it with kitchen twine to hold it in place while it cookies. Sprinkle the roast with salt and pepper.

2. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Set the roast in the hot oil and brown on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side, 8-10 minutes total (reduce the heat to medium if the oil starts to smoke). Remove the roast and set aside on a plate.

3. Reduce heat to medium. Add the diced onion, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to brown, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and sugar and cook, stirring frequently, until, the garlic is fragrant. Add the chicken and beef broths and thyme and scrape a wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits. Return the roast and any juices that accumulated on the plate to the Dutch oven. Add enough water so that that level of liquid in the pot comes halfway up the side of the roast. Cover the pot with a lid, bring to a simmer over medium heat, then transfer the pot to the oven. Roast in the oven, turning every 30 minutes, until the meat is very tender and a fork or sharp knife slips easily into the meat, about 3 to 3 1/2 hours.

4. Transfer the roast to a plate. Pour the liquid through a mesh strainer (press on the solids with the back of a large spoon to extract as much liquid as possible) and discard the solids. Return the braising  liquid to the pot. Allow the liquid to settle for 5 minutes, then use a wide spoon to skim off excess fat off the top of the liquid. Discard the thyme sprig. Return the roast to the pot and add the sliced carrots, red potatoes, parsnips and celery root. Cook until the vegetables are almost tender, about 20 to 30 minutes.

5. Transfer the roast to a carving board and tent with aluminum foil. Add the wine to the pot and season with salt and pepper. Increase the heat under the pot to medium-high and bring to a boil. Cook another 5 to 10 minutes until the vegetables are quite tender. Remove vegetables with a slotted spoon and reserve the liquid.

6. Cut the meat into 1/2-inch slices. Serve on plates with a side of the cooked root vegetables. Pour about 1/2 cup of the braising liquid over the roast and vegetables.

Restaurant: Coppi's Organic (Washington, D.C.)

If food has personality, then classic Italian cooking is the food with a friendly smile and a warm embrace. Everyone has their favorite comfort food: mac & cheese, ramen, grilled cheese. For me, it's Italian.

Unfortunately, 2014 was a rough year for good Italian in my neck of the woods. Early in the year, Dino decamped to Shaw to become Dino's Grotto, and then in the spring, Palena closed its doors, a shocking development for what was one of the city's best restaurants. Sure, the Vace Italian Deli remains a wonderful place for Italian goods (and pizza), but the departure of these fine restaurants left a noticeable gap in Cleveland Park.

Perhaps its fitting that the restaurant bringing good Italian cooking back to Cleveland Park is one that's faced its own share of hurdles.

Coppi's Organic was an institution on U Street years before that neighborhood became as red-hot as it is today. A friend of mine who worked in the area in the early 2000s remembers it fondly. Of course, the U and 14th area we know today is vastly different than it was a decade ago, and Coppi's became of a victim of that redevelopment when it had to close in 2012 due to its building being renovated.

Flash-forward 2 years and Coppi's has found a new home in Cleveland Park, taking the former spot of Lavandou, a French bistro that hung around the neighborhood a long time but never made much of an impression on me. Coppi's is a massive improvement.

Cima Coppi cocktail

I first got to sample Coppi's food and drinks during a D.C. Food Bloggers Happy Hour and was so impressed I knew I had to return soon for dinner. (Note: This review is based on our subsequent dinner experience and not the happy hour.) We enjoyed a laid back dinner of hearty, well-made Italian classics with friendly service.

Our favorite way to start a good dinner is with cocktails, and Coppi's doesn't disappoint. Bar Manager Nikolai Konick has designed a fantastic cocktail menu of craft cocktails made with interesting ingredients and house-made syrups, as well as Italian-style Negroni (or inspired) drinks. I had the Cima Coppi made with Acqua di Cedro, a citrus liqueur our server explained is made from citron, a type of citrus fruit prized more for its rind than its flesh. With a gin base and a spicy rosemary-serrano syrup, it's a refreshing tipple with a nice kick. We also enjoyed the Fig Limonata made with Mahia, a Morrocan-style brandy flavored with fig and aniseed, lemon juice and aged balsamic vinegar. Vinegar has been winding its way through cocktails again in the form of shrubs, so I was intrigued by the use of balsamic in a cocktail, which is a great idea.

Insalata di Spinaci Novelli

What came from chef and owner Carlos Amaya's kitchen was no less impressive. We started with a round of salads. Chris sprang for the Insalata di Spinaci Novelli, a classic combination of spinach, Italian bacon, mushrooms and walnuts with a balsamic vinaigrette. While that was good, we liked my Insalata di Mele con Gorgonzola even better, a wonderful arrangement of spiced and oven-roasted red apples upon a bed of mesclun greens with toasted pine nuts, dried cranberries and gorgonzola cheese. I'm a sucker for apples and blue cheese together and the duo really shined in this dish, one of the best restaurant salads I've had this year.

Insalata di Mele con Gorgonzola

It's hard to resist good pasta in an Italian restaurant, and we were in the mood for it the night we visited Coppi's. We weren't disappointed by our dishes, both of which can be potentially too "heavy" in the wrong hands but were expertly executed, their richness tempered with a hearty helping of vegetables and a light touch with the sauces.

Strip steak béchamel lasagna

I loved my selection, a strip steak béchamel lasagna that was the evening's special. If your vision of lasagna involves too much gloppy tomato sauce and ricotta, then Coppi's lasagna may be just the thing to rekindle your interest in the dish. Thin layers of pastas sandwiched chunks of steak with mushrooms, red peppers and lasagna and creamy béchamel without a tomato in sight.

Gnocchi con Melanzane

Ever the gnocchi lover, Chris got the Gnocchi con Melanzane, which consisted of appropriately pillowy gnocchi in a sauce of sausage, sundried tomatoes, onion, pepper flakes, pecorino cheese and plenty of herbs.

Raspberry tiramisu

Despite being pretty stuffed, I really wanted to try a dessert, so we went with another evening special, a variation on Coppi's regular tiramisu with fresh raspberries. The classic Italian dessert was cool and creamy the way it should be with a nice coffee aftertaste.

Cleveland Park has lately proven itself a difficult place for restaurants, as evidenced by the aforementioned closures (the spaces of former Dino and Palena are still vacant, unfortunately). But Coppi's was doing brisk business the Saturday night we sampled it and for good reason. This is the kind of classic Italian cooking that I love, made with a clear understanding of ingredients, the right balance of excess and restraint and delivered with care and attention by the friendly serving staff. Although I didn't literally get a hug at Coppi's, my appetite enjoyed the familiar embrace of good, satisfying Italian cooking.

Coppis' Organic, 3321 Connecticut Avenue, NW (at Newark Street), Washington, D.C. (Cleveland Park). (202) 966-0770. Reservations: Open Table.